Chapter 13: Will the Wise
You and Steve fight, but a new friendship is appearing.
MASTERLIST
The next day, you wake up to Dustin talking to someone in his room. The low tones of his voice vibrate through the wall separating your rooms. Sighing, you begin to head towards his room to figure out what he's up to now. As you walk out of your door, you walk straight into him coming out of his. "Watch it!" he says. Right as you say, "who were you talking to?" "Myself, it's a smart people thing. Einstein did it," he says it confidently, but you can tell he's lying. You narrow your eyes at him, "Do I want to know what you've got in there?" "You do know - there's nobody," he insists stubbornly, he can be such a child sometimes. "Alright, just let me know when it bites you in the ass," you say. "You're so nice to your little brother," his voice drips with sarcasm, and the triumph of keeping his secret from you for a little longer. You roll your eyes and head for school.
For the rest of the day, you're by yourself. You get a lot of school work done, but it's getting pretty lonely. Jonathan and Nancy have suddenly become attached like glue. You wonder if it matters that Nancy's boyfriends have switched, seeing as whichever boy it is doesn't seem to change how much she values your friendship. Lunchtime finds you sitting outside under a tree. It's a dry but cool day, and a brisk wind causes you to wrap your jacket tighter around you. You're taking a break from studying and reading your book. For Hawkins high school, it's relatively peaceful. Which is, of course, when someone chooses to stand in front of you, casting a long shadow. You shiver as they block the sliver of sunlight. "Where's Nancy?" Steve sounds pissed. "Hello to you too, Harrington." "Where's Nancy? Is she with Jonathan?" "Why do you care, I thought you broke up?" Steve glares at you and squats down to your level. His hair is wet from the gym showers, he had obviously come straight here: his shirt was sticking to his damp skin. "I still care about her. Do you not care that she's up and ditched you?" You blink, not expecting him to take his upset out on you. "Steve, I know you don't care about me, so don't start pretending now." It's his turn to look surprised. Meanwhile, you calmly pack your book into your bag. The peacefulness was gone, now you'd have to find somewhere else to sit. "No, wait, I just want to fix it with her." You can't resist but roll your eyes at him. But a part of you is curious, something must have happened at basketball for him to come straight here. "What happened at basketball practice?" you ask, in spite of yourself. "Billy told m-" Suddenly you don't care anymore. "Oh, well, if Billy told you it must be true! I thought you were done with high school bullies," you couldn't stop the disappointment from creeping into your voice. "He told me Nancy skipped yesterday with Jonathan - and they still aren't back." "Are you worried about her?" His face said everything you needed to know. He was just upset to be the one to lose - typical King Steve. "I don't want to lose her," he says quietly. "Steve, you already lost her. And from an outsider's perspective, it looked like the best thing for both of you?" "Oh, for both of us? That must be why Tommy and Billy are already rubbing it in that I got dumped." You stood up and slung your bag over your shoulder, "Seriously, Steve, I thought you were past paying attention to Tommy." "It's different now." "Now that you aren't King Steve? Now that you've shown you have feelings? Anyone that's not a bully and/or asshole would know that those are just signs that you were becoming a better person. But I guess, really, you never stopped being like them." You start to walk away when he says, "that's not fair." "It's not fair? You lost one girl, Harrington. You know what's not fair? I lost my best friend to you. And then Barb died and I thought just maybe that would be enough to bring Nancy back to me. And now, you come crying to me about something that is not my job to fix. Like we're friends. We're not friends. You only pretended for Nancy's benefit. And you still are. Now that you've lost her, you're ready to go back to your old ways." "We are friends," he says it like he believes it. With a tinge of upset that you almost believe. "If we are friends, why have you never apologised for treating me like shit? Why did you expect me to sympathise with wanting the approval of people like Tommy? People who have only ever wanted to hurt me! No, leave me alone, Harrington. And if you're smart, you'll let Nancy make her own decisions too." You walked to class, it wouldn't hurt to be early. You can feel Steve's eyes watching you; his doleful expression burning into your mind's eye. Your vision is going blurry, and you're not sure if the tears are from anger or sadness.
As the bell rings for the end of the day, you're just happy to be leaving. The argument with Steve has left you with a strange taste in your mouth. It felt good to finally say aloud how upset his lack of apology and accountability about how he's treated you in the past. But your brain keeps helpfully flashing up images of how he had helped you last year. How he'd spent all night at the hospital waiting for you, just to get your brother to go home and rest. For once, you're looking forward to your work shift. As you're walking to your car you hear, "it's not like that, Billy! We're not even friends." "Good. Then why are you talking to him?" Billy's voice is practically a growl. You can't help but glance over, and see him towering over the ginger girl you now know to be Max. You smile at her as you walk past and hear her say, "you know what, Billy? From now on, I'm skating home." "Fine," Billy slammed the door to his car and drove off. Max eyebrows were raised slightly, in shock. She had actually, successfully, got Billy to back off her turf. "Hey, Max, right? Not that I was totally listening... but you live on Cherry, right? That's kind of far. I can't give you a lift there because I've got work, but the arcade is right next door if you're interested?" Your voice petered out as she gave you a sceptical look. Her eyes flitted over you, giving you a once over. You dug about in your pocket for your keys as you waited for her to make up her mind. "Dustin is your brother, right?" You nodded, "is that a yes?" "If you don't tell him. He'll never shut up about it." "I know the feeling," you said. As you left the car park, you continued, "actually Max I'm glad you moved here, my brother needed some humbling and you getting that high score on Dig-Dug really did the trick." Out of the corner of your eye, you can see her smile slightly, "at least someone's glad we moved here." "You mean you don't love it here? Shocker!" "At least in California there were skate parks where I could practice. Here there is just the arcade. It didn't take me long to beat Dustin's high score." "When he gets particularly annoying, I'll remind myself that." "He can get more annoying? I don't know how you put up with him. I mean - no offence but him and Lucas are so … juvenile!" "Tell me about it," you say thinking back to only that morning, and Dustin's insistence that the secret he was keeping wasn't so very obvious. "They invite me to be in their Party which is nice, but then suddenly there's things I'm not allowed to know about for 'my own safety', or at least, that's what Lucas says," she scrunches her face and puts on a squeaky fake-Lucas voice. Even though you laugh along with Max about her excellent Lucas impression, your hands can't help but clench the steering wheel that little bit harder. If there are really things that she can't know, it means they're about the Upside Down. That it's back. "Lucas says it's not because I'm a girl. But I just know it is," Max is saying. You sigh, choosing your words carefully, "Look last year, I don't know what they've told you. But Will ... went missing. There are some things we are forbidden to talk about, mostly because we don't want to upset Will," the last bit was a small lie, but hopefully enough to tide Max over for now, "but I will do some digging - subtly, I promise - and see what I can find out." Max looked at you silently for a moment, "okay, but don't be obvious about it. I don't want to be the kid who needs an adult to help her make friends." You grinned, "Don't worry, I am not an adult."
A/N
Sorry its been a while - no time at all atm
